summer fun!

Well it seems that summer is in full swing now and the weather has been downright HOT! This 4th of July we spent it with Jeremy's family and had a nice BBQ followed by a great fireworks show put on by Jeremy, Josh and Josh. Presley got her first try at a sparkler! She loved watching the fireworks go off and kept saying "whats that?" one of her favorite things to say at any and everything, followed by a quick in and out arm movement.

The day before we went to my families property up big cottonwood canyon and had a nice dinner with my dad and Colleen, as well as my grandparents. We went on a nice walk through the area and just enjoyed what our wonderful mountains have to offer, which is amazing beauty. Presley seems like she will for sure take after mom and dad in her love for the outdoors too. It is sure nice to be able to get together with family and enjoy one another's company.

 We also just got back from our first official camping trip as a family. And boy did I underestimate just how much work it was to take a 1 year old camping! Presley is in the works with the whole walking thing so she was either in our arms in her playpen or strapped into her stroller, and by the last day she had had it with all that so I ended up mopping the trailer floor so she could crawl around and play Presley style for awhile.  I do have to say that she did awesome though, we kept her on the same schedule for naps and bedtime so it wouldn't mess up the home routine and she slept pretty good in her playpen every night. She woke a bit earlier and would stand up on her tip toes so she could see us and make sure that we were awake. We also bought her a cute little bike helmet so she could ride the 4-wheeler with us, and she loved it! Thanks to our friends for letting us borrow their baby carrier, what a great thing to use! (see pic above with the 3 of us on the bike)
 Presley got to finish up each night with a bath in the sink. She was such a good little camper! We also went down to upper box creek so the guys could do some fishing. Jeremy caught an itty bitty fish and we showed Presley, She reached out to touch it and I pulled her back (too many germs and nothing to wipe them away with). I felt a little like a bad mom when Presley woke up with pink cheeks and nose and her eyes a bit swollen, I totally spaced putting sunscreen on her one of the days :(  baby skin is super sensitive! Presley got a pretty good look at her first deer just by sitting at camp. Papa went for a walk and the boys decided to try and scare him, instead they ended up scaring a deer out of the trees and it made its way right through our camp!
  Presley is also getting the hang of walking pretty well. She walked the length of our trailer a few times. She also seemed to have a pretty good appetite while camping, but who doesn't?? Oh I almost forgot Mollies story...
  We get to our spot and we are not even there 15 minutes, I look over at Mollie and she had something on her side. I call her over to me and see that her whole one side is covered with COW POOP! She found a mighty fresh pie and thought it was great smelling and rolled in it, So Jeremy and I had to give her a makeshift bath to get the stench off her, stupid dog! The whole time we were there it seemed like 1 of the 5 dogs was eating some cow pies. Malcom ended up throwing up twice, once in the trailer and once in the truck. Again stupid dog!
 It was a great 4 days spent in the outdoors, besides the rainstorm that came through once a day, oh and the hailstorm that came and interrupted Presley's afternoon nap. It was nice to spend some much needed time together as a family. How I love the summer and what we can do with it! I Hope that we are able to do a few more summer activities before it comes to an end.

Presley turns 1

It sure is crazy to think that a full year has gone by and that Presley is now 1! We had a big bash for her first birthday, We had both sides of the families come to celebrate with us. We had a BBQ and Jeremy was the cook (and he did a great job, it was a lot of burgers to cook!) Everything looked and went just as we wanted it to. I had such a fun time making her birthday cake (something I plan on doing each year for sure!) I made her a 3 tier white cake with raspberry filling and decorated with fondant and to top it off I made her pink elephant made of fondant as well to top the cake. It turned out perfect if I may say so myself . 

I also made Presley her own smash cake and she wasn't too sure if it so we stuck her finger in it. after that she loved to grab a big handful of the whipped icing and squish it in her hand, when we tried to get her to taste the frosting or the cake she did her usual stick her tongue out until it falls out of her mouth and off her tongue!

Presley got SPOILED for her birthday from everyone as well. She got lots of clothes and some toys. We decided to get her a water table for outside since she 

a) loves being outside

b) loves the water       

I think her favorite toy was a big purple ball from Nana and Poppi!

We set-up a big inflatable water slide for all the kids to play on and they loved it.

I wanted to make her a onsie as well with a 1 on the front and ruffles on the bum, with my moms help we did it and it was just what I wanted! (thanks mom)

I also spent a good amount of time putting together a sideshow showcasing Presley's 1st year of life. In doing so I have decided that each year I am going to make one of these so we can see that changes and milestones that she reaches throughout her life

Putting together and hosting a birthday party is sure alot of hard work, but is worth every moment and memory it creates. I love to see the smiling happy faces of our nieces and nephews and love being surrounded by loved ones to help create many happy memories for Presley. As a mother I strive each and everyday to give Presley all that she deserves in this life and to help shape her into a beautifully caring and loving person. I hope that up to this point we have done so.

Some of the things that Presley is doing right now are as follows:

1. loves to say "ooohh baby" to everything

2. love to whisper "whats that?" as she points at anything

3. uses Mollie as her personal mountain to climb over and rest on

4. has become a VERY picky eater! bread and fruit are our fail safe!

5. loves to climb the stairs as soon as the gate is left open

6. loves to play in the water and be outside

7. her fav. shows are Olivia, Franklin, and Miss spiders sunny patch friends

8. has not lost her rhythm to music and dances when any music comes on

9. and last but not least, LOVES her MOM and DAD so much ♥

(that's a ditto from mom and dad too)

It's been awhile

Where has the time gone? It seems like I have been slacking in the update department to here we go 1 month all in one post. Lets see last post was all about Easter so since then we have celebrated a few things. My birthday was the end of April, we went out to dinner as a little family, the usual meal is ALWAYS Red Lobster, but I wasn't feeling it this year so we ended up at Training Table  (due to the absence of dairy for so long). It was a nice night. Then we had Mothers day which turned out to be quite the rainy day (as if we haven't had enough of this wet stuff!) This was my 1st real mothers day too. I took myself out shopping for a new spring dress, which I have been unable to wear just yet. Then we had Jeremy's birthday to celebrate, he wanted to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner so again our little family went out to eat, we had a nice time. I also made his birthday cake, I was practicing for Presley's cake. I made a white cake with raspberry filling and covered it in fondant. I had to think of some sort of theme or design for it and came up with a green bay packers cake, the colors weren't true green bay colors but hey it was my first time and I think it turned out pretty good for never having working with fondant before. Hopefully Presley's cake will turn out just like I want it too!



don't mind the lumpiness!

I had 2 days off in a row so on Friday I took Presley to the rec center and she had her first encounter with the pool. She loved it! we went with my friend and her 2 little ones. The rec center has an awesome kiddie pool area and Presley was crawling all over the place! She loved being able to make big splashes too. This is for sure something that I want to make sure I do alot with her this summer!

  

 We also went to one of our favorite car shows this past Saturday (the weather was actually nice for a change) Jeremy went early with his bro and 2 friends and Presley and I went later on with my friend and her little boy. Presley loves to be outside and had fun playing both on the grass and on her blanket. My dad and Colleen came and visited with us for a bit too. After the car show later that night we had a BBQ at my sister-in-laws home so all in all my one Saturday off in a long time was very fun!! oh and in Presley news, pretty sure that she TRIED to take a SIDE STEP! This makes me sad and happy at the same time! She is growing up so fast and I want her to stay little forever. Presley has become a very efficient furniture walker. Case in point below....

she rounded the corner by the lamp to get what she wanted

here she comes with her prize

all that work for my BC pills

    On a side note my mom had to go in for a minor surgery last Thursday, they thought that she had a blockage in her heart and that that's what was causing her chest pain and low heart rate (40) so they went in and checked and all is clear, they now believe that it was her medicine that was doing it so they took her off and will check her in a month to see. I sure hope that that was the problem. My mom has endured so much bad health that she deserves to be healthy for the rest of her life, I love her so much and appreciate that she watches Presley for us while we work, without her we would be in big time trouble! So a BIG THANKS to you mom! we love you so much!

     So for now there is our life for the month, lots of exciting stuff is to come with her birthday right around the corner and all the summer fun that I hope we get the chance to do this year since Jeremy has switched jobs (this is for sure for the best of our family though, and he seems so much happier there)

Easter

Yesterday was Easter, this year it was pretty low-key, usually we go from here to there to everywhere to see all the family, but this year my dad's parents were supposed to be gone on a cruise [grandpa Burke's eye injury changed that plan] so there were no plans with that side. My dad and Colleen came over on Saturday to visit and give Presley her Easter gift from them (a cute little spring dress and a lamb) My mom didn't set anything up for Easter either. And Jeremy's family didn't do the usual this year since all her grand kids weren't going to be there.

   So we woke up and I fixed a little Easter breakfast for us, we had orange rolls, eggs, and sausage. Presley has become quite the picky little eater as of lately and is not a fan of eggs currently. She does this silly thing where she will let you put it in her mouth but if she doesn't like it she will continue to stick out her tongue like a dog until it falls off. So the rest of the afternoon we did nothing [well I should say Jeremy did nothing, I on the other hand got busy in the kitchen and prepared 2 weeks of lunch and dinner for Presley.]

       My mom called later and invited us over for dinner, it was yummy! Thanks Mom and Don for having us over, they also got Presley a little gift, they got her a cute summer outfit and a cute peter rabbit cookie with her name on it. After dinner my grandparents came over for strawberry shortcake. Then we went over to Jeremy's parents to have a little Easter egg hunt

Oh I almost forgot, the Easter Bunny came to our house this year! Presley got some good stuff, She loves books and the Easter bunny must have known! She loved how the eggs made noise when she would shake them (money inside) and loved to pull the grass apart all over the house. It was a good weekend! Jeremy had a blast at the dunes, after all that is a yearly tradition for him to go to the dunes Easter weekend with all the crazies! he always comes home beat out from partying it up all night! But I am glad that he has something to look forward to that he loves to do, and it helps keep him out of trouble (at least as far as I know.) So there you go, a quick look at our 1st Easter with Presley.

I just happened to stumble upon a new blog the other day, I was looking at who my followers followed and tada! I have found this blog to be very inspirational, although there is lots of sadness to it, I think that this family has amazing strength! turns out they lost their princess to SIDS when she was only 4 months old :( It has really made me make sure that I spend every chance I can with Presley and to make sure that I tell her throughout each and every day just how much her mommy and daddy love her. Life is a strange and wonderful thing and you never know what will happen.
        
    Hold your loved ones close and tell them how you feel, you never know what will happen. I had a hard time sleeping last night though because although I have thought about SIDS alot before, after reading her blog somehow it made it more real [crazy since i dont know this person personally] I kept waking up to make sure that I could still hear her breathing through the monitor and when I couldn't I would go in her room to make sure. My heart aches for that family, I wish that no one had to go through putting their baby to rest, it's just NOT fair!

   So I thank this woman for sharing her grief with total strangers and making everyone more aware that things happen that are out of our control, but the one thing we do have control over is making sure that our loved ones know how much they mean to us.

Our beautiful Presley, We Love you SO much!

Breastfeeding

So I have been going strong with this whole breastfeeding thing and I am loving it! When I went to my first Dr. visit when I got pregnant with Presley one of the questions that was asked was if I was going to formula feed or breastfeed. I told Larsen that I guessed that I would give breastfeeding a try. Never did I think that this would be something that I would become passionate about, I have dabbled with the thought of looking into becoming a lactation consultant as I now know first-hand how challenging it can be (especially with Presley's milk protein intolerance issues) As we are approaching Presley turning 1 I am faced with new challenge of weaning and as much as I thought that I would be excited for this day when I would be done breastfeeding it is now becoming reality and I am no where near ready to start weaning her. I have thought about cutting out her afternoon feeding and replacing it with a bottle even if I am home with her so I would only be breastfeeding morning and night, but I just cant seem to do it. I have so much milk stored in the chest freezer, I'm talking like 300 ounces! that needs to be used [after all it is liquid gold] I didn't pump for nothing! So I guess some decisions will need to made in the next few weeks.
   I can't beleive that here in a few days she will be 10 months old, just a few weeks back I was thinking to myself that Presley has been in this world as long as I had carried her in me, life truely is amazing! She is also becoming more daring and adventurous, she is pulling up on all of the furniture and thinks that she is just so neat! our end tables and coffee table now look bare as she thinks that she needs to touch everything on them so we have had to move it all. Just today she has started to transition from the end table to the couch and back, its so fun to see her learn new things, but makes me sad at the same time. I was reading parents magazine at work yesturday and came upon a quote from Sharon Ozborne it said something to the effect of  " our children are basically on loan to us, its our job to raise them into adulthood, so cherish the time that we have with them while they are little because they are only little for a short while." I loved this thought mentality. I do my best to spend as much time playing and exploring with her each and everyday.

Springtime

 

Well we had a nice few days last week that actually made me feel like we were officially on our way to fabulous spring weather, and of course in Utah fashion I woke up to snow on Sunday morning. Seems to be pretty common every time general conference is going on that weekend inevitably has to be crummy, whats the deal with this???

   I had to snap a few pictures of our backyard, the snow is so beautiful to look at when no one has touched it, the trees looked so neat with all the heavy snow making all the branches sag. Jeremy had to go out and knock the snow off some of them as he was afraid the heaviness of the snow would break the limbs. Now of course every ones poor bulbs that had started to pop up and the flowers that bloomed must be a bit confused with this white stuff.

Easter is late in the month this year which seems so weird to have it at the end of April. I got what I thought was a great idea  a week ago to try my hand at making Presley a crocheted Easter basket. I thought it would be cute if I could make it look like an Easter bunny, the project came out just the way I had envisioned it. I put the finishing touches on it today, I am excited for all the holidays and to be able to teach Presley why we celebrate the holidays we do. I believe it is important for childrenEaster is to know the meaning behind holidays and that they have way more purpose and meaning than just getting "things" I really want Presley to not be selfish or greedy as she grows up. I hope that I will be able to be the mother to her that I know I want to be. I want to instill in her the values and characteristics of a kind, caring, loving woman.

It really is amazing how much life does change after having babies, all the things that seemed so big now mean nothing. I have learned that as moms we become very selfless. My most important job is to make sure that Presley gets all the time and attention that she deserves [they only stay little for a short period of time after all] And I must find time to devote to the amazing husband that I have been blessed to have. I wonder how I managed to not get overwhelmingly bored with so much free time before Presley made her way into our hearts and lives, I ALWAYS have something to do, and if I don't give me about 1 minute and I will think of something that needs to be taken care off. There really is not enough hours in the day to accomplish every thing. So that means sometimes the house is a bit messy, but like I said those things seem not to matter as much as the time I get to spend with this amazing little human being that God has blessed us with. Easter is a great holiday and really shows how amazing life is. I am thankful for the gospel, God, Jesus Christ, and family and friends in my life.